The Institute of Medical Sciences BHU will soon become an AIIMS-like institution with the government going ahead with a proposal to upgrade the IMS facilities at an estimated cost of Rs 616 crore by 2019-20, said a senior Niti Aayog official.

The official further said that the Centre wants to improve governance of IMS and give it more functional and financial autonomy.

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“The Centre wants to transform IMS BHU to apex institute like AIIMS and it will invest a total of Rs 616 crore in 2018 -19 and 2019-20 for creating more super speciality health facilities and increasing number of beds in the institute,” the official told agencies.

An MoU was exchanged on August 4, 2018 between the ministries of HRD, Health and Family Welfare and the UP government for upgrading the IMS-BHU to the level of AIIMS.

Unlike AIIMS, which are autonomous bodies, IMS will be the first super specialty hospital that will be governed by the BHU Act and not AIIMS Act to provide top class medicare to patients in and around Varanasi, which is also parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Improving healthcare and establishments of an AIIMS in eastern Uttar Pradesh was a key poll promise by Modi in 2014.